3 Generations

I promise I will get my Dominican update posted soon.  The amount of pictures I took is a little overwhelming.  I'm trying to sort and edit a little every day. 

In the meantime, I'd thought I'd post about something very cool that I am excited about.  The Tennessean ran a story today on my family.  I haven't seen the newspaper yet, but Brian says we are on the front page.  I thought you all would like to take a peek at it.

Rachelle Darin, left, Krista Darin Lord, Marcia Darin and Stacy Darin Zepeda exercise together in Pinkerton Park.

Marcia, her daughters and granddaughters will do a triathlon in August. / Dipti Vaidya / The Tennessean

You can read the article here.  Thanks to my hubby for being the encouragement we all needed to get our little behinders off the couch on onto the pavement.  Love you baby.

Snapshots of the Dominican

We arrived home very late last night.  It was a full day of travel and we were all exhausted, but we had an amazing trip.  I have over 550 photos to prove it.  Here are just a few of the faces we saw along our journey.  I hope you enjoy them. More to come this weekend.

My hubby also wrote about the Dominican.  You can read about it here.

On a mission

It's 10:45 and I'm exhausted, in a good, hard work, kind of way. The girls and Brian are asleep and I'm writing on my iPhone in the dark. So this post will be brief. I wanted to thank you all so much for your prayers. They mean so much to us. I have tons of pictures from today but I'm just too tired to download them and we have to be up early to go back to Esperanza. I promise I will get some up tomorrow night. I'm dying to show you the faces of the sweet children we got to love on tonight. Sydney is so excited to see her two new best friends in the morning. I hate to see what happens when we have to say goodbye for good tomorrow. The kids loved all their gifts we gave them. It truly was like Christmas morning for them. Please be in prayer tomorrow as we feed the children and show the Jesus movie to them. Pray that many of the children will come to know the Lord as their personal Savior.

To Serve the Least of These

Tomorrow is the day.  A day we have been planning, for over a year.  Brian and I have a heart for missions.  We believe we are called to serve those less fortunate than ourselves.  We will soon get our chance to do just that.  The best part about it is that these two little girls will get to experience it all with us.

We would love your prayers.

1. For safety as we fly and safety as we drive through the Dominican Republic.  I've heard our van doesn't have seat belts.  Yikes!

2. Good health for all of us.  The dizziness has been really bad lately and I am just praying for some good days while we are there.

3. Most importantly, please pray for the hearts of the kids we will be ministering to.  We will be showing the Jesus Movie to them in Spanish.  My prayer is that many kids and adults, will come to know the Lord.

Thank you for coming on this journey with us.  You can follow our trip on Twitter @kristalord and @premierebrian or here on my blog.  

If you want to learn more about the organization we are going with or to sponsor a child, please visit Servants Heart Ministries.



Heat Wave

Y'all it's hot in Nashville.  We broke a record on Friday with high of 109 degrees.  It hasn't been that hot in Nashville ever since July 1952.   So what does one do when it is that hot outside?

We go camping of course.  The girls have been bugging us for months and we finally caved.  We went to Costco and got a pop up tent, which sets it self up in less than 10 seconds.  It's awesome.  The girls can both fit in it and it was under $30.  Total score.  Then it folds up flat for storage.

Ok, so they camped in the living room.  That still counts, right?  They had a blast.  Of course, a good camp out is not complete without S'mores.  We made oven S'mores.

Sydney helped me make these and I have to say, they were delish.  Just like the real thing and oh so easy to make.  Here are the directions:

Line a cookie sheet with tin foil.

Arrange mini marshmallow on graham crackers.

Put chocolate chips on top of marshmallows.

Stick in the oven on broil and take them out when the marshmallows turn brown.

Enjoy with your kiddos and imagine you are camping under the stars and listening to the crickets.

Finally, I saw this picture on Facebook and had to include it in my post, since I am talking about how stinkin hot it is here.  I saw this and it put the heat into perspective for me.

Oh Lord forgive me for complaining about the heat.  It is nothing compared to what our men and women have to endure on the front lines.  Please protect and guide them as they fight for our freedom. Amen.

Have Flip Flops, Will Travel

Last weekends basement sale was a huge success.  We raised almost $400.  Thank you to all of our sweet friends and family who stopped by and bought lemonade, cupcakes, jewelry and artwork created all by the kids.  The money raised will help buy the backpacks we need for about 100 kids.  We will also use some of the money to help buy snacks for the kids when we show them the "Jesus Movie".  Some of these children have probably never seen a movie and a movie that could forever change their lives, is even better.  Would you please be praying for the hearts of these sweet kids that need to hear that there is a God who loves them deeply?

We have been overwhelmed by the donations coming in.  To date, we have collected 132 pairs of flip flops, 107 boxes of crayons and we are now moving on to collecting childrens sunglasses.  We are in need of 100 pairs of sunglasses to put in each of the backpacks.  If you'd like to donate, please let me know. 

We are getting excited, but there is still so much to be done.  The girls have been at camp all week from 9-3 so I've tried to use that time wisely to prepare for our trip.

Is anyone else going on a mission trip this summer?  If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Four girls on a mission

These girls are on a mission, literally.  We leave for a mission trip to the Dominican Republic next month.  We were super busy today doing this.

We have collected about 100 flipflops and crayons in the last week.  The girls are so excited.  We will be distributing backpacks to over 100 kids through an organization called Servants Hearts Ministry.  SHM, is a child sponsorship program in the Dominican Republic.  We sponsor a 3 year old little boy named Michael.



How sweet is that face?  I can't wait to meet him and hug his neck.

We would covet your prayers as we embark on our first mission trip as a family.  Please pray for our safety and for the girls hearts as they experience for the first time, children living in extreme poverty.

My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will give them a love for these children and a heart for the orphans and the widows. (James 1:27)

I will be blogging from the trip and can't wait to show you how God is using us to care for His children.  Please pray how you can be involved in furthing His kingdom through Servants Heart Ministry.  Thank you.

Wordless Wednesday

New Post......Finally

So, you know you haven't blogged in long time when you can't remember your password to sign into Blogger and then when you finally get in, Blogger has a new look.  Fantastic!

If I have any readers left, thank you for hanging in there with me.  We've had alot going on and frankly, I just lost my desire to blog.  Then I started feeling guilty because I hadn't been recording all these wonderful things that were happening with my girls and our family.  I hope to blog more in depth about all of these events, but for now, here is a recap.

My sweet baby turned 5.

She graduated from Preschool.

Brooklyn had her artwork on display at the prestigious Frist Center in Nashville.

I turned 40.

I became an aunt again to a beautiful nephew named Canaan.

So here is hoping I can blog more frequently because I never want to forgot all the wonderful things God is doing in our lives.  Even in the midst of the dessert, I am reminded that God is Good!!

To Have and To Hold-11 years and counting

On Saturday, Brian and I celebrated 11 years of marriage.  Brian surprised me with a night away.  He arranged for my parents to watch the girls Friday night and Saturday morning.  Thanks mom and dad. 

I was told to pack a bag and that was all I knew, so I was delighted when we pulled up here:

I have always wanted to stay at The Hermitage Hotel.  It is over 100 years old and is the only 5 star hotel in Tennessee.  It did not disappoint.  Their attention to detail is incredible. 

We were told that the woodworking in this ballroom was the same that was used on the Titanic.  Pretty neat.

I kept staring at the ceilings.  They were absolutely beautiful.  I could have hung out in the lobby all day.

We had dinner at the Oak Bar.  It was divine.  Seriously, I can't wait to go back.  Brian had a double stacker hamburger that was to die for.  I snuck a bite and it was so yummy.  Mine was really good too.

After dinner we went back upstairs to get ready to see "Titanic, The Musical" across the street at TPAC.  When I walked into the room, there were rose petals on the floor, candles lit and chocolates and champagne.  There was even music playing on the tv.  This is one classy hotel.  Everything is top notch.  Guys take note.  This is a great place to take your wife.  You can thank me later.

Our hotel room:

I may or may not of taken an hour long bath while watching Guiliana Rancic's True Hollywood Story.

Breakfast at Capitol Grille was included in our package Brian bought.  It too, did not disappoint.  I had a Belgian waffle and Brian had the Tennessee "Jack" Egg Sandwich.  Our waiter told us that the Food Network named it best breakfast sandwich in Tennessee.

If you are ever in Nashville, you must stop by for the dining.  If you can stay the night, even better.

Thank you my love for such a fun getaway.  I love you and am blessed to be your wife.